Social Work Boss Defends Court Move

Social Work chief Andrew Lowe has defended Scottish Borders Council’s use of the courts to block what it says was an attempt to reveal the whereabouts of one of the men convicted in the notorious ‘Miss X’ torture case. Mr Lowe told The Southern the local authority took legal action at the weekend to halt plans by The Sunday Mail to print a story that would have given away the new address of recently-released Alexander Maben, alongside an up-to-date photograph of him.

Maben, 43, was one of three men who raped and tortured a mentally-ill young woman in Newtown St Boswells four years ago, in a case that shocked even hardened police and social workers.

The story The Sunday Mail did publish made no mention of Maben’s new address and there was no new photograph, instead it slammed the council for what it called ‘wasting’ £12,000 of taxpayers’ money trying to stiffle news that Maben, who was jailed for seven years, had been released from prison early.

But Mr Lowe says he never had a problem with the news of Maben’s early release being published. The director of social work also rubbished the claims about the cost of specialist legal advice, saying it will be more in the region of £3,000.

“We got a tip on Friday that The Sunday Mail was planning to run an up-to-date photo of Maben and details of his new location,” said Mr Lowe. “We sought to negotiate with the newspaper publishers, but they were not prepared to compromise on these points.”

Mr Lowe said the council then petitioned the court for an interdict but at 4.30pm on Saturday, got a call from the newspaper’s lawyers saying details of Maben’s where-abouts or a new photo of him would not now be published.

Mr Lowe continued: “The reason we took this action was because there were several scenarios, none of which we could contemplate being allowed to happen.
“The first reason was to ensure we could comply with our statutory responsibility with regard to safety.” That is the safety of the community by being able to monitor Maben’s whereabouts. There was also concern for the 18 or so people identified as being vulnerable to Maben. There was also concern for his safety – we are legally obliged to have concern for all of these things.”

He explained that if details of Maben’s whereabouts and what he looked like now had been leaked, there were concerns the convicted torturer might have taken flight, resulting in social workers and police losing track of him and having no knowledge of his movements.

“There is also the public reaction to consider. The behaviour of a lot of people might be influenced. We are very much aware of the passions shared by people and the sense of outrage people felt over this crime. We are given legislation which we carry out in the best interests of the Borders people.”

The Sunday Mail’s editor Allan Rennie has disputed the council’s claims, saying the local authority did not want a single word about Maben published. “They asked us quite specifically not to publish the article,” he is reported as saying this week. “I don’t understand how this serves the public interest.”

However, support for the council’s position came from a surprising quarter. Arch-critic Christine Grahame believes sex offenders such as Maben, who is deemed at high risk of reoffending, should never be released.

“What this man and his two accomplices did is almost beyond comprehension. I think this highlights the weakness and utter failure of the existing early release programme, and in my view we simply cannot allow offenders like Maben to be freely stalking the streets waiting for the next opportunity to claim another victim. At the very least he should have been made to serve the entire length of his sentence, but the fact that he has failed to take part in rehabilitation programmes and is still deemed to be at high risk of offending underscores the point that he should never have been released.

“It is now left to Scottish Borders Council’s social work department to divert resources to ensure Maben is properly monitored. I have every sympathy with the council in this instance. The money they are going to have to spend keeping an eye on Maben could instead be diverted towards support and assistance for the community.”

Miss X was abused for three months by Maben and his two friends, James Mercer and Ross Douglas. Mercer, 39, got 10 years in prison, while, Douglas, 30, also got seven.